RECAP & REVIEW: The Blacklist “The Courier” S1 E5

22Oct

It’s a toss-up for me for favorite new show of the season with Sleepy Hollow and The Blacklist. Both shows are very different and both fabulous in their own right. Overall there isn’t a lot I don’t like about Sleepy Hollow. However, there are some parts of The Blacklist that make me raise my eyebrows. Such as, don’t you find it interesting that all this elusive, dangerous, highly sought after criminal just make it so easy for the FBI by always having business in DC? They never have to go anywhere! Also, why is everyone so angry all the time? I get why Lizzy might be on edge, what with her husband being, whatever dangerous entity he is. But why is Ressler and Malik always in a bad mood? Seriously these people always look like they are ready to rip each other’s heads off. But finally we got a smidge more insight into Ressler that might explain that a bit.

Every single episode has been really interesting and I love the different types of madmen and women they have been coming up with. That must be a fun time in the writers’ room….sitting around thinking “what can we have this person be that’s just really sick and twisted. I KNOW! Let’s have this middleman be the human version of a woman’s handbag!! He’ll feel no pain and have everything from keys to flash drives to Burt’s Bees lip gloss in there!” Seriously though coming up with these criminals has to be awesome. And so far, they have been doing a tremendous job. Between last week’s The Stewmaker (and knowing what he did, that name is beyond disturbing) and this week’s The Courier, these criminals have been down right creepy, scary, and very dangerous.

The Case revolved around The Courier who is a middleman hired by two parties to complete high-end or dangerous transactions. The Courier’s insurance, if anything goes wrong, on either end, he kills both parties. So you take a huge risk using him but you know the job will be completed to 100% satisfaction with no worries of him coming back later. Since Red knows he’s in town to do another job (kidnap a NSA agent for an ex-French intelligence agent) you know the exchange won’t go smoothly. And it doesn’t. Now it’s a race to find Seth (the NSA agent buried alive by The Courier) before he dies. Since the one party is dead and The Courier isn’t talking, their only option is the French agent turned club owner. Ressler goes undercover as The Courier to get the location of Seth’s body. She wants proof he’s who he says he is so he slashes his arm with cut glass (which looked really painful) with wincing once. But it’s not enough. She knows the deal with the Courier and if he was really him, she would be dead already. His cover is blown and a shoot out ensues with Ressler getting away. Eventually, Superman, I mean Red, goes to the club and gets the info Ressler couldn’t in exchange for saving her life and getting her away. In the end, they are able to save Seth’s life, the Courier is killed, and another name is checked off the list.

Let’s talk about Tom. I have no idea where this is going…and I love that. I see this thing with Tom going one of two ways, which means I’ll completely wrong about both. Option 1: Tom is being set up. All evidence points to Tom being a bad guy or at the very least a big fat liar. Lizzy found the box containing the gun used in the murder in Boston, money, and about 10 different Passport IDs. The more she uncovers about the case, the more she turns skeptical of Tom and who he really is. The last thing we see “linking” Tom to the crime is a surveillance picture of him leaving the scene of the crime and him being listed as the potential killer in the report Red was able to get for her. Usually when things are that obvious they scream that it’s too obvious therefore it can’t be true. Plus, when he found the box, his first call was a panicked phone call to Lizzy wanting to talk to her. He called her over and over again and then waited for her at home with the box laid out. Why do that if you’re guilty? Wouldn’t you run? Or kill her? He appeared freaked out by what he saw so that indicates he didn’t know anything about this. How does this relate to the surveillance team, who could be the people setting Tom up. Who they are and why they are doing it is still a massive mystery. Could they be part of Red’s team? Could they have something to do with Lizzy’s father? Could they be government agents? I have no idea at this point. Option 2: Tom is a deadly bad guy. Sometimes we have a tendency to over think what is clearly right in front of us. And right in front of us is a lot of evidence showing that Tom isn’t who he says he is and might be a little bit scary. I think this could be all part of his act to make Lizzy think he has no idea what the box is and to put her mind at rest that he isn’t this double agent she might be starting to think he is. Why would he do that and not run? Maybe because his assignment is not complete. Maybe he’s being blackmailed into doing whatever he’s doing. It make sense why the surveillance team is there. They are watching him to make sure he holds up his end of the bargain or to make sure he’s doing his job. The flip side of that argument though is that they just put the equipment up recently. Wouldn’t it have been up the whole time? Unless something changes recently causing the surveillance to be necessary. I’m hoping it’s option 2 because I think it would be a lot more interesting if he’s duplicitous vs. the good husband being set up. And if he is a double agent or something else entirely, who is he? Who is he working for? How does Red know so much about him? Remember when he asked Lizzy what she knew about her husband in exchange for more information about the Courier? He thanked her for telling him the truth. How would he know that? He would know because he already knows who her husband is and the whole story behind him. Could he be #1 on Red’s Blacklist? Is that why he’s so obsessed with Lizzy? So many questions!!! And I’m ready for them to be answered slowly. I like that each week we get more and more layers of the onion peeled back. I just hope it doesn’t go too quickly. Quite frankly, I’m surprised the box reveal happened this soon.

One crazy projection I have and I’m just going to go out on a limb and say it….Keane and Ressler will fall in love. They hate each other right now. They don’t trust each other right now. She’s married to someone who could be on Red’s list. It’s a perfect romantic story!!! I’m telling you, you heard it here first. At someone point in the series, those two will get it on and be in love.

How are you enjoying The Blacklist? The ratings are strong, the writing is strong. The acting could be a teeny bit better but with James Spader stealing every scene he’s in every week, it really doesn’t matter.